I got a package with a Wooten queen last spring and was very happy with the build up. So far they've survived the winter. The bees were very gentle - used very little smoke and only got stung once all year when I knelt and smashed a girl behind my knee. I've ordered two more Wooten queens this spring to use when making splits.

I bought wootens for several years. As stated they built up well. As for gentleness I called them my little ankle biters. They were not mean but at the end of the day my leather high tops always looked like pin cushens. The golden color part isnt really true. Maybe it was years ago but they just look ordinary to me. I switched to Olivarez last year and these queens should be called golden. I am terrible with records but am sure I still have some wootens going through there second winter. I also have ferals, spellbee and Olivarez. I think the spellbee have wintered the most consistantly

Unfortunately.....Wootens is where I ordered my 8 from last year. I can give them VERY high marks for gentleness, hygiene, and color (if you're into that).

However, the one thing that was a constant for these bees was that they were lousy at foraging. Out of the six queens that took (2 were superseded immediately, but I don't think that's rare for any batch of queens), five perished from lack of stores.

I kept sugar syrup on all of them because they weren't foraging the way my other bees were, but they weren't good at taking the syrup either. I lost them all to eventual dwindling. 3 dwindled and died the first season, I squished two queens myself because the hive never expanded past four frames and it wasn't even worth trying to winter them over. And the last one just perished a week or so ago. Same issue. They'd managed to build up a bit last year, but even with syrup and a pollen substitute patty they currently had, they wouldn't take it and died.

Now, in all fairness, when I called to order my queens, the gal on the phone had made a comment about them having a rough time because of the weather and all. I'd like to believe my queens were out of the norm for them. My advice is to ask them what kind of year they are having this year.

And, in all fairness, I seem to be an isolated case. The man that recommended them has been very, very happy with Wootens. Out of all my hives, my Wooten hives were the only ones that behaved in this odd fashion. Yes, it could have been something I did, and I constantly think about that, but it is very suspicious.

Nope, nope, nope, I take it back...the last Wooten queen is still in there, but only with about 1/2 cup of bees. They are sitting on the honey I gave them.

I had opened the box and saw dead bees all along the top of a frame of honey. Since I'd been messing with the box the previous day in an attempt to help them, I did the big nasty...I assumed they were all dead.